Which add on navigation brand is best?

I have a nuvi, I like the garmin brand...think they are dependable and easy to use. I bout a "nav mat" thing that sits on the dash and then wired the gps power cord down near the driver side door and under steering to the lower 12 volt. the gps sits right in the little triangle window next to driver side. Gps is easy to see and not high enough to interfere with vision through windhshield. Hope I helped.


ps. most gpssuction things are not long enough to fit in the side window...there are after market ones I saw them in radio shack one time., but they were real bulky so went with the mat.

 

I just purchased the sony gps with bluetooth NV-u83t. I paid 329 in Canada but it should be cheaper if you are in the U.S. It has the large screen and the hands free for the cell is great. I did a lot of research and this one I like the best (that and it was 449 and on sale for 329---although there is not a lot of difference in most of them.

 

Just picked up a Garmin Nuvi 200W at Target for $180, and am quite impressed. It finds destinations much faster than our built-in unit in another vehicle. It's also nice not to need a CD or DVD, since maps for the USA are built-in. You can view Garmin's video about it at nuvi 200W demo movie

 

I read a lot of complaints about other brands and it seemed like the Garmin units had the lowest amount of complaints so I bought one. The Nuvi 660 is being discontinued so you might find a great deal on one, better than what I paid anyway at $320. Otherwise the lower model Nuvi's look attractive for the price.

 

So far I've only used the provided suction cup mount, which works well. However, I'm sure this will leave the tell-tale evidence of a portable GPS on the windshield, which serves as an invitation to thieves. I've ordered a Nav Mat friction dash mount.

 

any TOMTOM navigation system
there the best

 

tom tom is good they got that map correction thing, if you go with tom tom try and get one that comes with a year of free maps, i think costco USED to do that? and save the
receipts. otherwise tom tom gives you "1 free map"* and every 3 months wants $99 for a new map.

i got a 920t, and now the 930t's came out and theres no way for me to get the 930 features, i tried over a couple days and i couldn't get it to work

i got the core 8 version and got the version 8 map, but the map wouldn't work so i
deleted the tom tom flash drive and replaced it from a back up

*- first map is free, but don't expect their tom tom home program to actually tell you that there is an actual map out for months it said i had the "Latest map" even though
there was a newer map found in the map store, and i had to call tom tom 3-4 months later to plead my case and i eventually got a new map for free, then a week came by and yet another map came out, so i got 2 free maps.

tom tom will only give you a years worth of free maps if you can provide proof and access codes and receipts and related photocopies to justify your year of free months claim.

both times to get the free map it involved actually talking to tomtom customer service and tom tom manually copying the map file into my tom tom account

 

i hear good things about dash.net, it has a two way traffic connection over GPRS, but they want a monthly use fee and you can save a couple bucks by prepaying a year or 2 of service or paying month to month

if you get traffic, get something that uses a rds-tmc, in the states rds-tmc signals come from clear channel which owns a lot of fm radio stations and it has pretty good signal coverage

skip the msn traffic service, it relies heavily on msn's transmitters

 

DON'T BUY THE TOYOTA NAVIGATION UNIT.

It's very expensive, lacking in interactive features and the few features it does have can't be used when the car is moving.

 

I bought the Toyota nav with my Prius and find it to be adequate but nothing special. After a couple road trips I picked up a Garmin Nuvi 750. It rides right next to the Toyota unit in the Garmin bean bag mount. Can't say enough good things about this mounting method. I run the cable from my ScanGauge II under the bean bag so the ScanGauge sets on the dash right in front of my line of vision. Stays in place very well. If you want to keep it around $200, you can't beat the Garmin Nuvi 200. My wife has started calling me "Geek Boy." It cracks her up when I mount the Garmin and ScanGauge and strap on my Garmin Foretrex wrist GPS for a ride to the other side of town. Might be overkill for some people, but I love info-overload.

Mike

 

the oem toyota gps unit gives you a ton of voice activated commands, even for the radio and climate control system. depending on the inventory and the wait times you might not have a choice between option packages, like package #3 is what i got because nothing else was available.....

yah and the oem gps that is installed is an overpriced DENSO unit, so no wonder there
why they want thousands for it.. if they used anything but DENSO parts it probably would of slashed the price by several thousands of dollars

theres this big detailed toyota survey going around and in a couple years we might get a better navigation system, like something a lot cheaper that relies on subscriptions or something really expensive that does not require subscriptions

 

I bought both the TT720 and the NUVI 200W. I kept them side by side everywhere I went to compare. Many times the TT would have me in a field when the NUVI would be right on track. Also, the NUVI acquired satellites MUCH faster at start up and recalculated route faster when I'd purposely miss a turn. 200W is a very very well priced unit and has same routing computer as their more expensive units. I gave the 200W to my parents(easier to use by far) and returned the TT for a NUVI 760....Same basic unit as 200W but with Bluetooth, multiple routing(compared with 2 address limit on 200w) and few other bells and whistles. Nuvi was hands down winner with me and most of the GPS and TECH magazines I researched. On a side note, TT had a superior Bluetooth and Handsfree Speakphone. Much clearer but only in relation to cell phone. Love the Garmins. I also have NISSAN'S factory GPS systems in two of our other vehicles and they don't even compare with the Garmins.

 

yeah thats another thing about tom toms, as long as the road exists and its in the tom tom you can correct it, by renaming it, unblocking it, etc

but if the street does not exist in the tom tom and you do the tom tom map correction thing and report it to tom tom, it will just be ignored until a future map comes out and that is going to be $79-$99

 

We have a slightly older TOM TOM One which was selling at around $225. It has been great for us and I mount it on the inner cupholder located at the center console. The TOM TOM gets a good signal, it doesn't leave the "steal me" marks on the windshield, and I plug it in to the center console power port. The cable pokes out of the console for about four inches. Also, it makes it easy to unstick it and quickly store it in the console.

 

This article might help:

TMC Traffic vs. MSN Direct on your GPS | GPS Lodge - GPSLodge.com

 

TeleAtlas is probably better for Europe but is lousy in the US

Tom Tom and Mio Digiwalker use TeleAtlas maps which unfortunately are inferior in the US to US based Navteq's. Therefore, for US use, I would NOT buy any TeleAtlas based unit.

For the US, ones that use Navteq are brands like Garmin, Magellan and Navigon along w/most built in car nav systems.

See http://priuschat.com/forums/audio-e...0-any-other-good-alternatives.html#post500527 and Garmin vs. Magellan vs. TomTom: Which GPS Picks The Best Routes? (GPS Magazine) as to why.

If you join Tivocommunity, in order to read the threads below, you'll see that there are lots of complaints about TeleAtlas' map data.
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I have the factory nav system in my Prius and a Garmin Nuvi 350 for use in my nav system-less 350Z .

 

I'll agree with it being very expensive now compared with PNDs. When I got my Prius, it was still expensive but PNDs weren't quite as good and cheap as they are now.

However, there are many pros and cons of the the Prius' nav system vs. say my Garmin Nuvi 350. See my post http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-m...dvd-nav-vs-other-nav-system-2.html#post675023.